Commerce Ministry recommends anti-dumping duty on Optical Fibre imported from China, Korea, Indonesia

NEW DELHI : The commerce ministry’s arm DGTR has recommended imposition of anti-dumping duty on imports of a certain type of optical fibres from China, Korea and Indonesia to protect the domestic industry from cheap inbound shipments.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended the duty after conducting an investigation on the dumped imports of ‘Dispersion Unshifted Single-mode Optical Fiber’ from these countries.

The product is mainly applied to high-data rate, long distance and access network transportation.

Birla Furukawa Fibre Optics Pvt. Ltd, on behalf of the domestic industry, has asked for initiation of an anti-dumping investigation on this product coming from these countries.

The applicant had alleged that material injury is being caused to the domestic industry due to the dumped imports and has requested for the imposition of the duties.

The directorate in its findings has concluded that the domestic industry has suffered material injury due to the dumped imports.

The presence of dumped imports in the Indian market forced the applicant to sell the product at prices below its cost of sales, thereby incurred losses and adversely affected the profitability parameters of the domestic industry, DGTR has said in a notification.

“The authority recommends imposition of definitive anti-dumping duties… so as to remove the injury to the domestic industry,” it said.

The recommended duty was in the range of USD 122 per KFKM and USD 857.23 per KFKM.

The trading of this commodity occurs in FKM (fibre kilometre). 1 KFKM = 1,000 FKM.

While DGTR, which is under the commerce ministry, recommends the duty, the finance ministry takes the final decision to impose the same within three months of the recommendation.

Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to check if their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in below-cost imports. As a countermeasure, they impose duties within the multilateral regime of the WTO (World Trade Organisation).

Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry. It is not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in the cost of products.